Muwatta Malik Book 8, Hadith 7
Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Abu Bakr ibn
Sulayman ibn Abi Hathma that Umar ibn al-Khattab missed Sulayman ibn
Abi Hathma in the subh prayer. In the morning he went to the market,
and Sulayman's house was between the market and the Prophet's mosque.
He passed ash-Shifa, Sulayman's mother, and said to her, "I did not
see Sulayman at subh." She replied, "He spent the night in prayer and
his eyes overcame him. Umar said, "I would rather be present at subh
than stand the whole night in prayer.
the one killed by a plague, the one killed by a disease of the belly, the one who drowns, the one killed by a collapsing building, and the martyr in the path of Allah.'
He also said, "If people knew what there was in the call to prayer and the first row, and they could find no other way except to draw lots for it, they would draw lots for it. And if they knew what there was in doing dhuhr at its time, they would race each other to it. And if they knew what there was in the prayers of isha and maghrib, they would come to them even if they had to crawl .
Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim that Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Amra al-Ansari said that Uthman ibn Affan came to the isha prayer and seeing only a few people in the mosque, he lay down at the back of the mosque to wait for the number of people to increase. Ibn Abi Amra went and sat down beside him and Uthman asked him who he was, so he told him. Uthman said, "What have you memorised of the Qur'an?", and he told him. Uthman said, "If someone is present at isha, it is as if he had stood in prayer for half a night, and if some one is present at subh, it is as if he had stood in prayer for a whole night.